Punjab terrorism: Cases pile up as evidence remains blocked

Interior secretary directed to resolve matter of providing police direct access to phone logs.

LAHORE: While presiding over a meeting on Saturday to review the performance of anti-terrorism courts, Supreme Court Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan expressed serious concern over unresolved terrorism cases despite a lapse of one year, sources said.

The meeting, held at the library hall of the Lahore High Court, was convened to follow up on decisions taken in an earlier meeting held on January 16 in the Supreme Court.

The main agenda of the meeting was to review and assess the decisions taken in previous meetings regarding traced and untraced cases, arrest of proclaimed offenders (POs), court absconders (CAs), constitution of joint investigation teams (JITs) and establishment of modern forensic labs, sources revealed.

The interior secretary, provincial secretaries, judges of anti-terrorism courts across Punjab and senior police officials attended the meeting.

Access to data

Justice Shakirullah, who is also the monitoring judge of anti-terrorism courts across the country, particularly expressed concern over non-compliance of court orders regarding providing police direct access to mobile phone logs of suspects.

The Punjab police had been seeking direct access to mobile phone logs of people involved in criminal activities, particularly in cases of terrorism and kidnapping for ransom.

As police do not have the authority to directly contact telecom companies to access such data, they usually turn to the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Intelligence Bureau for assistance. However, the lengthy process usually causes delays in investigations of important cases.

The interior secretary has been directed to resolve the matter within 10 days.

Police proposal

A draft proposal submitted by the Punjab police at the meeting called for upgrading detection techniques, including the use of mobile phones, to trace criminals.

The draft stated that the reluctance of security agencies to share data or testify in courts “weakened the data’s evidentiary value”. Direct access to data, the draft stated, would benefit police in detecting and preventing crimes and prosecuting criminals.

Police also called for training its personnel in tracking suspects by IMEI and IMSI numbers.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2012.